A Ninja's Legacy
by Nemu
Summary: When Kohana's uncle Makoto, a renowned martial artist, is murdered by a mysterious assassin, her own life is spared thanks to a ninja that broke into their house upon hearing the fight. She is about to demand that he help her, when he knocks her out.
1. Beat Up Alley Cat

**Title:** A Ninja's Legacy

**Author:** Nemu

**Warnings:** This story contains an original character, if you do not like possible events with original characters I suggest you push that little Back button on your browser, as I do not yet know where the story will take me.

**Disclaimer: **Yeah, I _wish_ I owned any of the Dead or Alive characters or concepts, but I don't. Only Kohana is mine.

**Author's Note:** Shame, shame, I picked it back up. Finished this last night in a major writing spree. Pretty happy with it, except the fight scene. My problem is that I know how fights go but only because I've been in them myself at karate training – being one of the fighters isn't exactly a good point of view, it's kind of hectic and full of instinct and reflex stuff. Sigh.

**The Beat Up Alley Cat**

In her own opinion, Kohana was not one to easily complain. Not someone that would just ask questions out of the blue. But uncle Makoto was being unreasonable. There was no reason at all for keeping her away from martial arts. None at all.

Because of this lack of a good reason, Kohana was again spending her time reading through books on the style that Makoto practiced. He owned many of these books and hid them in his study, which was usually locked.

Usually.

Kohana had, years ago, figured out how the lock worked and picked it daily so that she could read all of the wisdom in Sakuyurai Makoto's little library. She always did it while her uncle would spend hours practicing and perfecting his Aikijutsu, a style she had previously never heard of, but the books had taught her a bit more. Her uncle's seemed different from the books in that he attacked as much as he defended, with moves that she guessed were not Aikijutsu moves. His real style, so far, was unknown to her, but she thought nothing of it. Maybe he was so good that he adapted the style for himself to suit his personality and tastes better.

Currently, however, the young woman had a small problem. This problem being that she had read every book in the room twice by now, so she had to pick one she really wanted to study for a third time. Her fingers were slowly stroking the backs of a few books on stances and moves, her other hand clenched in a fist. She was just itching to try these things out, but she had only done so a few times when she was sure her uncle was not home. In her opinion, this was not enough.

A loud bang in the room Makoto used to train, close to the library, startled her. The man never made that much noise other than the occasional yell to support whatever he was doing.

Kohana's eyes strayed to the door and her fingers abandoned the book cover she had been caressing as her feet hesitantly started to move her away from the bookcase. Another loud bang – no, it was more of a thump. As if someone had fallen over. Slightly worried, with an eerie feeling in her chest, she started to jog over to the door, through it and towards the other room, forgetting to lock the library back up.

Heading for the training room, an eerie feeling turned into fear. Kohana was a stubborn woman and ignored it with all her might, so she could see what the cause of the noise was. She heard two different yells, one from her uncle, and one from an unfamiliar person, as she approached the door, hand outstretched. Had he found himself a training partner and were they trying to see who was better?

Gripping the door handle, she took a deep breath, calming herself down so the feeling of fear left her almost completely, and opened the door with a harsh pull. The next thing she knew she was dodging a bulky body headed for the door. Sidestepping, she noticed the man was dressed like a burglar and obviously not Japanese. She winced slightly as his body hit the wall opposite the door with a loud bang.

Uncle Makoto was staring at her, wide eyed, panting. She could not figure out what the odd expression on his face meant, but felt that this was not the time for that. 'Uncle, what...'

'Kohana, get out, now,' Makoto told her strictly, sounding as much out of breath as he looked.

'But what's going o-...'

A harsh voice behind her grunted something in a foreign language and she was swept aside by a thick, muscular arm. She banged into the doorframe and bounced off into the hall. The man that had batted her out of his way as if she were an insect lunged into the room, at her uncle, who sidestepped and used the other man's speed to throw him on the floor behind him. Kohana thought the unfamiliar opponent was no match for her uncle, but saw the bruises forming on her uncle's arms and the parts of his chest that were visible through his rather traditional – and half undone - training attire. The other man was also rather good at whatever it was he was trying to do, and currently getting back onto his feet in a matter of seconds. Meddling as she was, she tried to warn her uncle for the knife she saw the foreigner pull out of a sheath in his boot: 'Uncle!'

Instead, Makoto thought his niece was scared and moved around to try and protect her, at which the skilled fighter behind him took his chance. He did not throw the knife, but pounced on top of his target and plunged his weapon into the back of Makoto's neck, twisting it for maximum damage and almost instant death.

Makoto's eyes glazed over as his body twitched involuntarily. Blood trickled from his ears and nose down his neck and face, and Kohana found herself wanting to scream, but she could not make a single sound as the assassin's cold blue eyes settled on her.

She realized he saw her as a witness to a crime and that he would try to get her next. If Makoto had lost the fight, then she could not expect to do much better.

But as she stared at her uncle's limp body a different feeling took over from her fear. This person was the only one that had taken care of her since her parents had died when she was only a baby, and more of a father to her than his brother who she had only seen in pictures. His death at the hand of this large man that she had never seen before angered her so much that the part of her brain that was telling her to run shut off completely from one second to the next.

She ran at him without thinking and wanted to kick him in the groin area because her instincts told her to – the first thing a defenseless person would do. Her victim, however, was not defenseless at all, and he got hold of her leg, twisting it.

Fearing he would break her bones, she went with the movement and fell, attempting to roll towards... anywhere.

Her heroic dive for freedom was stopped when she bumped into the wall opposite the room's entrance and was nearly beheaded by the old weapons her uncle had decorated the walls with, which came crashing down upon the impact. As she shuffled out of the way, she grabbed a very decorated katana from the floor, trying not to cut her hand on the others, and dove out of the way before the attacker's knife hit her in the head.

Getting on her feet quickly and jumping out of the big man's way again – he was obviously much faster – she held the katana out in front of her, instinctively looking for the right pose.

From there on, something in her head took over and made her abandon all rational thinking. She knew she was probably not using the right techniques at all, but she attacked the man and tried to fight him, drive him out of the house. Somewhere in the back of her head a voice told her it felt good to fight like that.

This good feeling was short-lived, because her brave attempts to get rid of the dark man were parried and countered, earning her plenty of cuts and bruises. He was toying with her, seeing she didn't know what she was doing.

Suddenly Kohana got the eerie thought that his accomplice had come in when a hand stopped her next inexperienced swing by grabbing one of her wrists – rather tightly. She attempted to break free but the fingers tightened more, hurting the tendons in her arms.

A man clad in dark red, smaller and not as buff as the man whom she had tried to fight stepped in front of her, refusing to let go of her arm, twisting it a little but not breaking it.

'Don't,' he said softly, his voice rather low. 'You'll get yourself killed.'

She felt her eyes widen as she looked at him in surprise. What he was saying was not really out of concern, but he did not mean her any harm, either. He was keeping his eyes on the bigger man, so she could only see him from the back. His clothes were obviously of Japanese origin, dark red with a pattern on it that she couldn't quite make out from where she was – she could only think of him as a ninja with that outfit on, especially with the large sword strapped to his back. She felt her mouth try to speak but all that came out were a few incoherent squeeky sounds.

'Keep that sword with you in case he comes at you,' he instructed – no, ordered – as he let go of her arm and stepped forward. 'And keep it lower, else it will not do you any good.'

Surprised at his calm behavior, she nodded even though he would not see it and stepped back, lowering the katana slightly, but keeping it ready all the same.

What followed was something that came straight from the books in the library down the hall, or maybe from a movie. The bigger man got a few seconds to scoff at the ninja, before said ninja suddenly shot forward, aiming a rather deadly looking hit for the other man's gut.

Big Man opted for a dodge to the side and swept his left leg out to where Ninja Guy had ended up, but Ninja Guy jumped over it and lashed out with a quick kick to Big Man's brow.

Big Man grabbed the leg and twisted it just like he had done with Kohana's incredible crotch kick earlier.

Ninja Guy didn't seem to care as he rolled with it and used his free leg to kick himself loose. Finishing his roll, he ended back up on his feet and paused half a second to find an opening before letting loose on Big Man again.

Big Man seemed annoyed, for he had hoped to finish his job quickly and get rid of the witness. Now he had two witnesses, one of whom appeared to be a fighter as good as he. Quickly finishing it was no longer an option – he had to deal with Ninja Guy if he liked it or not.

Kohana's heart raced as she watched the two men fight. She had never seen anything like it, for she had not been allowed to watch her uncle the times he set out for tournaments that seemed vague and not so legal at all. She wondered if those fights had been like this, with both men trying to hurt each other as badly as they could.

She could cleary see differences in styles, too, for Big Man was indeed big and heavy, so he used his weight and big arms to get Ninja Guy in various holds that would break him in half if he managed to push through. But Ninja Guy was slippery and quick, delivering fast, hard punches and kicks to Big Man and using the environment to his advantage.

At one point, Kohana cringed as Big Man had Ninja Guy stuck in a hold that would break his back, when Ninja turned on Big and slammed him into a wall.

The fight paused, both men stepped back and Ninja Guy seemed to allow his opponent a chance to leave, for somehow he seemed pressed for time. Big Man growled, made sure his mask had stayed on, and said in a low growl, 'Fine, live. If I ever run into either of you again, you'd better be prepared to fight for your lives.' He walked over to the wall behind Kohana, and pulled out his knife. Seeing her involuntary twitch with the sword, he snorted disdainfully before turning around and disappearing.

_Hey_, said the little voice inside her, _his back is turned, you could get him now. Why don't you go after him and stick that nice sword you're holding between his shoulders?_

Kohana shook her head, wondering where this rather odd thought came from, and her eyes strayed to the lifeless body of who was once her uncle. Surely that assassin didn't think he could get away with that?

Her right foot slipped back only slightly and she pushed off to bolt out the door and kill the man, but Ninja was in the way. Very much in the way. So much in the way that she bounced off him and the sword clattered onto the floor, useless.

'What did you do that for!' she screamed at him, tears filling her eyes and making him one big red and orange-brownish blur. She blinked to see him more clearly, while she briefly wondered how he had intercepted her so quickly, and got back up on her feet, raising a fist and slamming it down on his chest, hard. All she met there was steel. Or possibly muscle, but sometimes it felt just the same on a man anyway.

'He would have killed you, and I would have cracked a window for nothing,' the ninja replied calmly.

'You broke a window?' she asked, shaking her head in confusion. So many things at the same time. Her uncle was dead, so she had to cry, but the ninja was getting in her way of punishing the assassin, so she should be angry and scream, and he broke a window on top of all that. And she should worry, for she had no idea what to do with her uncle's body, or with the house all on her own. Why had Makoto been so awfully protective of her? Now she knew nothing of what she had to do next!

Finally, anger chose to stay on the upper hand for now. She banged her fist on his chest again, and had it joined by her other fist, repeatedly attempting to smash in his ribcage. 'You're gonna have to help me kill him now, you bastard!' she yelled at him. 'You teach me or I'll get myself killed, right?' She tried to hit him harder just to make it clear to him.

'Oi,' the ninja tried, stepping back and sighing to himself. When she made another attempt to come at him, he sidestepped and was suddenly behind her. Next she felt a sharp pang in the back of her head and she fell over, her vision blurring with both tears and pain this time. Then it started to go black, from the edges, and through the tunnel she could see the ninja's feet moving toward the old katana she had dropped. He moved to pick it up, but then she couldn't see him anymore.

* * *

Cool air and the smell of fire. Leaves that rustled, that couldn't seem to shut up. Creaking of wood around her, muffled voices in between. A hard shoulder pressing into her stomach, one hand on the small of her back. The sheath of a sword knocking against her jaw with each step of... wait, was she being carried? Who would bring a sword in these modern times, anyway? 

She managed to open her eyes with some difficulty and through the blur and dizziness made out sand and stones. An old road? The environment that she could not well see because she hadn't the strength to lift her head and look around seemed to light up a bit more. She floated up a flight of stone steps before coming to a halt.

'Hey, is that a present for me?' a man's voice asked. It seemed like a joke, but Kohana couldn't hear any jest in the voice.

'Find one of your own,' answered another voice, which sounded slightly annoyed. As he spoke, she felt something under her rumble. So this voice belonged to whoever was carrying her.

'Funny that you're desperate enough to kidnap a woman,' said the first voice, actually a little amused this time.

She tried to speak, to protest, to ask what was going on, but only a low grunting sound came out.

'You hit her pretty hard, it looks like.' She saw two feet in front of her, then a lock of hair as the owner of the feet bent over. A hand touched her chin and lifted her head up a bit. She squinted her eyes because it hurt. Green eyes looked back at her calmly.

'Very much down, not so much out,' he commented. 'What do you want with this one?'

'Chuck it in the nearest pit, is my suggestion,' a harsh female voice butted in. 'Since when do you take in beat up alley cats, Hayate-sama?'

'Shhh, I will explain after I drop her off,' rumbled the voice below her.

Her head hurt, she wanted to go back to sleep instead of having this green-eyed creature stare at her. If she wanted green eyes staring at her, she could look in the mirror. She twisted her neck to break free of the hand gripping her chin, which seemed to convince the hand to let go.

Her eyes closed again, while someone softly mumbled, 'This sword will interest you, Ryu. Hold it for me until I get back.'


	2. Shameless Exploitation

**Title: **Shameless Exploitation

**Author: **Nemu

**Warnings:** Chapter length. This is perhaps the most boring chapter in the entire story, but I tried to make it nicer.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Dead or Alive or any of its characters. I also do not support slavery.

**Author's Note: **After being stuck halfway for a long time, I finished the rest of this in a huge bolt of inspiration. I might even continue with chapter three right away at this rate. I'm also having trouble making Kohana seem obnoxious, as this is from her POV. Sigh. I hope she is plenty annoying, despite that.

For those that don't know, a kunoichi is a female ninja. But I bet you read that in the manual, you freaks.

* * *

When did it become morning?

Kohana wished those birds would shut up outside so she could sleep some more. The birds were never this loud. Was it a sunday? Or was it monday and was she supposed to get up for college now?

Her head hurt and her bed was hard. Her bed was never this hard.

Quickly, she opened her eyes and saw this was definitely not her room. Her room didn't look like an old Japanese house. Her walls were a soft creamy orange, not the dark, warm woody color she was staring at now. In fact, that was real wood.

She turned her head, sat up a little, and saw a rice paper door.

'Really now,' she moaned, as her memories started to return to her. Her uncle was dead, the guy that did it escaped, and the man that saved her knocked her out cold and kidnapped her.

Great, and now her face was wet, too.

She'd thought the sobs were someone else's, but apparently now that she was getting over the shock of all that had happened she felt the need to cry. Of course she did, she had lost her only close relative and was taken away without getting to avenge him.

Kohana tried to stop, but couldn't. Before she knew it she was crying like a child with a broken heart, clutching the pillow to her chest as if she would never let go of it.

She wanted Makoto back. She didn't care if she was going to die here at the hands of that bastard ninja that knocked her out, but she wanted to see Makoto again. He was always her only certainty. He couldn't have been taken away.

But he was gone forever and there was nothing she could do about it.

Feeling empty after one last wail, Kohana sighed and wiped her eyes on the pillow. She had to do something now that she was all alone or she would never get anywhere. There was still that killer on the loose and she needed answers.

Taking another look around the small room she saw it was indeed rather traditional. Thus empty. There was a set of dark blue clothes – a gi, like what her uncle used to wear when he practiced – in one corner, a small metal comb and a dark grey ribbon on top. At least she wouldn't look like a haystack come to life, then.

After she had dressed herself and combed her hair, she took a look at the ribbon and snorted. She wasn't going to tie her beautiful auburn locks back where no one could see them! Instead, she tucked it away inside her bra, just in case. Maybe she could use it to tie up the ninja if she ever ran into him again.

Outside her room was a hallway that seemed to lead around... something. She guessed maybe a courtyard. This was feudal architecture, after all. Pretty, rich, but old-fashioned.

She followed it until she came to a sort of common room. As empty as the rest of the building had been, this room was full of other people. Men and women, all somewhat young and most wore the same clothes as she had been given. Some of the women wore very short outfits with tall stockings to cover their legs, and some of the men were in full gear like that ninja from last night – was it even last night?

Kohana shook her head to shake off the confusion and stepped into the area, sitting down on her knees as was required in this type of household. She looked around boldly, daring the people in the room to think oddly of her.

She only got a few good mornings and a bowl of food with some chopsticks.

Trying to appear as if this was very normal to her, she ate her breakfast. Between every other bite, most of the people around her were giving her curious looks, although they were pretending not to be.

'You know, if you've got questions you can just ask,' Kohana said finally, setting her bowl down in front of her. 'I've got a few questions of my own.'

No one said a thing. They just nodded and smiled and went back to their meals.

'Just what is this place? Are you all ninja?' she tried.

Some of the men grunted, a few nodded, smiling at her like she got a quiz answer correctly. A few women uttered a quiet 'yes, of course', but otherwise no one said a thing.

'Okay, creepy... I'm just gonna go out now, yeah?' Not waiting for an answer from this mountain of mutes, she got up, only to bump into a slightly taller young man that was around her age from what she could tell. His eyes were almost blacker than his hair, looking at her from a rather pale face, but he seemed friendly. Or at least in a good mood.

'One second,' he said serenely. 'This way.'

He led her to the exit, which she could have found on her own if he had just let her, and pointed at the newest looking sandals in a long row of others that looked worn. 'Those are yours.' Then he pointed down a broad path. 'At the end of here, turn right and keep walking until you see him, alright?'

Kohana just nodded even though she hadn't the faintest. 'How come you're okay to talk to me?'

'Because I have to give you instructions, or you will mess up,' he said cheerfully. 'My name is Sho. You come back here to eat and to sleep. We're housemates now.'

'All of those people?' she said, shocked that she had so many roomies all of a sudden. 'You mean I live here?'

'Yes. I might see you later.' He waved and went back inside.

'My name's Kohana if you even care,' she called after him, picking up her shoes and tying them to her feet. This was madness. She would go see this "him" Sho was talking about and tell him exactly what she thought of this crap.

* * *

After almost ten minutes of path and more houses and a few trees, Kohana came to a clearing. There she saw a familiar head of auburn, shoulderlength hair, crowned with a dark blue, white-rimmed headband. Even though he was not wearing all the gear and the dark red clothing – he was in fact dressed in white and grey this time – she easily recognized him as the ninja from last night.

'Oh, so _you're_ him,' she guessed, standing still behind him and crossing her arms.

He did not move, and it became apparent to her that he was standing in the exact same way as she was. Except a little less huffy. Well, she had every right to be huffy.

She said, louder this time: 'Good morning to you too. Even though I don't see any good in this morning, but that may just be me.'

The ninja turned just enough to be able to look at her sideways. Kohana almost felt like stepping back and giving him the most defiant look she could think of, just for the way his brown eyes looked right through her. It took a while for her brain to register that she'd actually done that. Coughing in embarrassment, she went back to imitating his pose.

'I doubt it's good,' said the ninja. 'I see Sho managed to get a hold of you before you shot off in any general direction.'

She snorted in _his_ general direction.

'Nice attitude,' he pretended to mutter to himself. He did not bother to lower his voice even a little. 'There is no way to do this normally, so let's just get started.'

Kohana felt her forehead twist into a very angry frown. She had never tried to mask or control her emotions, but she had never felt this angry before, either. No time to be shocked now. 'So, you got stuck with me cause you snatched me away from my house and uncle? Bet you did something illegal right there.'

The ninja gave her a long stare, then shook his hair out of his face. That headband of his wasn't working well, it seemed. 'I chose to be stuck with you, unfortunately. But that isn't of any importance.'

'Yes it is!' She felt tears of anger well up in the corners of her eyes, but she bit them back and stepped closer to him. 'You abducted me without asking if I wanted to come! Now I have no idea what's going to happen to my uncle!'

His eyes showed slight regret for a split second; suddenly the brown was actual brown and not that cold shade of before. But then he gave her an authorative frown and said: 'His body is fine. I've arranged for it to be taken here and buried somewhere outside of the village, as he is not a shinobi. Leave that behind you, you have more important things to worry about.'

Kohana frowned back at him, confused. What did she have to worry about? The assassin, for sure, but that had everything to do with her uncle.

'What do I have to worry about?'

'My judgement,' he answered sharply, though he never raised his voice.

'Oh, _you're_ going to kill me then.'

'No.' He nudged his head into the direction he had been looking at before she arrived, took his arms away from their resting place on top of each other and went down the stone steps on that side.

Kohana narrowed her eyes and followed him slowly, wondering how many randomized terraces this village had. The movements of the man in front of her were very fluent, as if he was ready to do some nice acrobatics any second. She admired that, because she could see he was clearly very good at being a ninja.

Her uncle always used to move like that, too.

As they walked, the ninja began to explain: 'I took you with me last night, so this will be your new home, as Sho must have already told you. There will be no leaving here and I demand absolute loyalty from you. Any sort of betrayal at all and I will either make you commit ritual suicide, or kill you myself.'

Kohana stopped, her feet stumbling on the stone surface, and stared at his back. 'You can't do that, it's barbaric!'

'Keep walking.'

She obeyed, lest he would kill her.

'That is only in the unfortunate event you decide to be the spoiled brat you are and go your own way instead of the clan's,' he continued. 'But I suppose you value your life.'

'Why did you take me here if I'm a brat?' she said, practically screamed at him.

His feet made little sound as he stopped walking and turned around halfway again to look over his shoulder. That seemed a habit of his. 'You were begging,' he said.

'I was not begging!'

The man shrugged, his auburn hair slightly brushing his white-clothed shoulders, and he went onto a slightly bigger terrace than before. This one seemed to be slightly raised above the rest of the village, though not quite away from it, especially since Kohana suspected they were still in the middle of it all.

'Don't do anything foolish and stay true to the clan.' It wasn't a question, and it wasn't even an order. It was a _fact_.

He wasn't a man anymore, he was some dark shadow, and the environment became almost as dark as he was and began to spin as the full realization of just how much had changed in her life dawned on her.

'... Yes, sir,' she said, with a voice that barely sounded like her own.

'Then I'm sure you won't die by _my_ hand,' his voice came from the dark blue masses of her surroundings. The shadows lifted and the early morning sun warmed her face. His eyes settled on her for a moment, still just as calm as before, and she thought she saw a bit of sympathy in them – their color was once again not as pale as before – before he left her briefly to retrieve a very long katana from where it was leaning against a stone wall. As he dedicated his attention to securing it to his back and making sure it would not knock against the smaller sword strapped to his lower back, he continued to explain.

'Then I expect you to do your very best to at least become an acceptable kunoichi, for I will just make you serve the others if you can't handle it. But you will never leave this village again. Not alive.'

The young woman nodded, attempting to swallow the lump in her throat. 'So... you'll teach me then?' she said, thinking that would be the only good thing about it all. And maybe Sho. Sho seemed friendly.

'If I decide you're useful.' He obviously wanted to make it very clear to her that if he decided she was not worth his time she would be chucked aside as a servant.

Kohana gritted her teeth; her desire to avenge her uncle joined the desire to finally learn how to fight, one she had harbored since she was a very small girl. She swore to herself to do her very best, no matter how hard it became. Just to spite life itself for turning its back on her.

The man finished putting his katana in place and shifted his shoulders a little to make sure it felt comfortable to him. 'Good, now that you've stopped the obnoxious yelling, we can begin.'

'I ain't obnoxious,' she answered automatically.

'Your voice is. Keep it down a bit, that might make you more friends.' He nodded a good morning to a very cheerful pair of young boys followed by a not so cheerful older man and two young adults. 'Now, I need to know your name.'

'Kohana. Sakiyurai is my last name.'

'Your last name won't matter to me. You're a Mugen Tenshin now.'

She found herself gaping at him. 'A what.'

'That's the clan's name,' he explained. 'Tenjin Mon will be your faction, as opposed to the other faction whose leader will definitely not have you. Tie your hair back, it will get in the way.'

She understood the use for the ribbon, but refused to obey. She would wear her hair any damn way she liked. 'I want to know who I'm dealing with, first. Are you the Tenjin Mon faction boss type guy?'

He sighed. 'I hope you will never have to hear yourself, you might go insane. Yes, I am. I'm head of the clan and the Tenjin Mon part of it.'

Kohana swallowed a new lump. She just had to run into a clanleader. 'You look young.' And he did. He looked very young, but from his mannerisms she could tell he was at least experienced in bossing her around. Maybe he was older than he looked.

He ignored what she said, so she tried something else. 'What do I call you?'

'My name is Hayate. Let's get to work, I have more to do than babysitting.'

* * *

"Work" consisted of things that other people would have used modern day technology for. Hauling buckets of water around for others, scrubbing floors, repairing things she'd never learned to repair, moving weapons and other heavy things around and more such seemingly trivial chores.

After hours and hours of this, Kohana found herself under a large tree in which someone's clothing that had been hanging out to dry was spending its last minutes of cleanliness. At least _it_ seemed happy up there.

There was no way she could make it to the first branch just by reaching. A few attempts at useless jumping later, she decided she could not jump high enough to grab onto it and climb further up, either. Looking around, she found no rope, and Hayate was going to grow into a very nice man before she ever asked him where to find a piece of rope. Hell, she hadn't even really spoken to him since early that morning, although he frequently came to see how she was doing her chores, and kept sending people her way that would tell her what to do next.

Checking the vicinity for curious ninja eyes, Kohana stepped back, away from the tree. She had no choice but to try something stupid. If she couldn't finish this chore, how would she ever be a good ninja?

Dust blew up from under her feet as she pushed off hard and ran at the thick stem. Her first step up the rough bark surface went well, the second slipped a bit, and... the third was never there when she slammed face-first into the tree, grazing her cheek on the way back down.

Kohana glared at the tree in exasperation as she rubbed the chips of wood off her face. With a soft groan she hauled herself back up on her feet and stepped further back than the last time.

After six and a half tries, she was beginning to feel like screaming at the tree, but it would not listen to her anyway. So she gave up on thinking logically and just ran at the object of her irritation again. Three firm steps up, then a fourth somewhat hesitant one, a fifth that slipped, a sixth that barely connected, but she could see the branch and stretched out her hands.

And found herself dangling from it rather awkwardly.

Taking a deep breath, she pulled herself up using all of the strength she still had left in her arms after an entire morning of dragging things around. She took a few moments to regain her breath and climbed up to the next few branches. This was a thing she had not done since her early childhood but it was easy enough.

Finally, she caught hold of the elusive piece of fabric that was indeed far from clean by this time. Grinning triumphantly to herself, she turned around, facing the stretch of empty space beneath her.

Staring, she swore under her breath. She had to go all the way back down without falling. Awesome.

A small white and auburn figure appeared in her view and calmly made its way to the roots of the tree. Hayate looked up, holding one hand above his eyes to shield them from the sun. The sun danced prettily on his hair, but that still made no difference as to what kind of bastard he was to put her in situations like these.

'Are you done up there?' He had to be screaming for her to even be able to understand him from that distance, but he sounded calm as he had done every time he said something to her. Another reason to distrust him. Most men would have the decency to sound a little rougher when screaming up at someone. That would be more human.

Kohana sniffed disdainfully, folding the cloth and then tying it around her waist. It was already dirty and crumpled anyway.

'Unless you want to miss your lunch you had better come down now!'

'Yeah yeah, impatient little man,' she muttered to herself. 'Well, you're small from here, anyway.' She lowered herself, grabbing the branch she had been standing on and swinging her legs down. That went well enough. Getting down wasn't nearly as hard as climbing up.

With her hands, cheeks and probably some parts of her legs raw and painful from the rough tree surface, she finally emerged from the foliage and dropped herself on a foot and a knee before standing up straight to look Hayate in the face.

He didn't utter a single word of praise. Kohana felt stumped.

* * *

Summer came. The days turned into weeks and then months as the weather became warmer and her chores heavier. Eventually, she had given in to tying her hair back with the ribbon. Hayate had given her a rather curious look as she had fished the thing out of her bra after lunch that first day, but made no comments. In fact, he barely ever commented on what she did, unless she did it wrong.

If she asked too much, he would ignore her. It became apparent to her that he was _very_ good at giving people the silent treatment.

Some of the tasks he gave her appeared to be utterly pointless, however, she discovered very quickly that if she gave him a smart mouth in any way she would either receive an extremely stern look, an even worse chore or a smack in the face. The latter she would only get if she continued to talk back at him. It was like being raised all over again.

One such task, one that frequently returned, was spending an entire day running up and down a very large flight of stairs. At the top, Hayate was apparently surveying a practice run of a mission the people involved were supposed to be doing come evening.

Messages kept flowing in to his house, where he had ordered her to clean up. Kohana suspected he had only told her that so she would have to stay near the enormous building while having something to do.

Every once in a while someone would approach her with a piece of neatly folded up paper. She would wipe the sweat from her brow, hoist herself up from her kneeling position where she scrubbed the wooden floors until she could see herself in them, and accept the message. She was then supposed to run – not walk, run, as he would "surely know if you've been taking your time" – all the way to one side of the village, up the ridiculously high stairs and toward Hayate where she would present the piece of paper to him, wait for him to read it and go back to either do what he told her to do next, or simply leave to go back to her chores. Some days he wouldn't tell her to stay in one place, but no matter where she went, the people with the messages always knew where to find her on such days.

By the time Kohana was used to nearly dying of exhaustion at the end of each incredibly long day, only to get back up in the mornings after less than the required amount of sleep, she was under the impression that all this time Hayate had never planned to make a good kunoichi out of her. That maybe he had seen nothing in her, but in his sadistic little brain had decided to keep her around as a slave while giving her false hopes of a goal in life.

* * *

One evening in late summer she once more dragged herself into the dorm – she called it the dorm – which she shared with the others of her age (who were _all_ ninja, none servant!), she realized she had spent an entire season in the village exhausting herself for no reason.

It was at that moment that Sho and another girl whom she had grown attached to came to her. The girl's name was Akemi and she was a few years older than Kohana. She looked stunningly beautiful with her perfect heart-shaped face, big brown eyes and long, dark brown hair. She always smiled a lot.

This time, she was smiling even broader than usual.

'Oi, Kohana!' Sho waved, grinning as much as Akemi. 'Got a message for ya.'

'Hayate-sama wants you to be at his house before he starts dinner, it sounded important!' Akemi said before Sho could.

Kohana frowned. 'Okay... So I gotta go there?'

'Yep. Have fun!' Sho shoved her back out the door, not giving her a chance to protest.

Ten minutes later she found herself in front of the rather large house Hayate occupied.

An man dressed in dark grey, his long, brown hair tied back in a ponytail not unlike her own was waiting in front.

His eyes were a vaguely familiar shade of green and settled on her as if she was his prey.

'So your name is Kohana, then?' he said, as if he was continuing a conversation they had started earlier.

'Yeah,' she answered cautiously. 'And you are?'

'Hayabusa Ryu,' came the reply as he pushed himself off tree he had been leaning against. 'She's here,' he said in the direction of the door.


End file.
